Canadian voters:
I trust you are aware of the major issues in this federal election. Here are some web sites with some valuable information and comparisons of the party platforms:
- a quick comparison
- a little more in depth comparison
- listen to/watch the leaders defend their views: cross country check-up interviews and debates
Each of their policies has been examined through the following lenses:
- Does it advance the common good?
- Does it advance global security, in environmental and geo-political terms?
- Does it address the needs of children?
- Does it ensure Canada’s continued quality of life and economic health?
- Does it make families more secure?
- Does it protect, enhance and restore the life support systems of the planet?
- Does it promote systems -- cultural, institutional, technological -- that are resilient and capable of adapting to shocks in a more unpredictable world?
The Green Party advocates:
* Increasing funding to all of Canada’s Arts and Culture organizations including The Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, orchestras, theatres and publishers. The goal will be to make increases in this sector commensurate with increases in support over the years for other sectors of the economy such as transport, the auto industry, health care, and the oil and gas industry.
* Providing stable base-funding for the CBC so it can continue to provide quality Canadian content television and radio programming in both official languages to all Canadians.
* Ensuring that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) reserves more bandwidth for independent and non-profit stations.
* Enacting legislation that requires cinemas and video chains to have at least 20% Canadian content.
* Restoring and improving arm’s length principles in the governance of arts and cultural institutions and agencies under the federal jurisdiction. In keeping with such a position, we believe that the heads of Canada’s cultural organizations such as the CRTC, Canada Council, CBC and Telefilm Canada should not be appointed by the political party in power but by an arm’s length committee made up of competent people representative of the various diverse stakeholders in Canadian society.
* Eliminating current legislation before the Senate that would give politically-appointed censors the right to deprive films of the right to a tax credit if their content is deemed “unfit.” In such a context films by some of Canada’s most internationally celebrated film-makers--including Egoyan, Cronenburg, and Arcand--would likely never have been made.
* Increasing support for community arts programs and facilities across Canada by establishing stable base-funding at a set percentage of the federal budget.
* Equalizing federal funding for Arts and Culture among provinces, territories and municipalities to make it consistent with the provinces and municipalities that have the highest current standards.
* Providing incentives to all provinces and territories to restore and improve Arts and Culture components to schools and extra-curricular activities not only in urban but also in rural areas.
* Extending income tax relief and incentives to artists (on the very successful models established by Ireland and the city of Berlin). Doing so will:
- encourage artists to settle in Canada and build businesses here
- result in other (usually) white collar “clean” industries that follow the arts jobs and dollars
- help to provide meaningful jobs to university and college graduates
- enrich schools and their offerings thereby attracting immigrants to settle in rural areas
- revitalize and discover talent in communities where traditional industries are declining and young people are leaving
* Following and implementing recommendations of Canadian Conference of the Arts in order to enable artists to access various social programs including Employment Insurance, Worker’s Compensation and Canada Pension Plan.
* Changing the Canada Revenue Act to allow arts and culture workers to benefit from a tax averaging plan that will take into account the fact that lean years often precede and follow the good year when a show is produced, a book is published and a grant or a prize is won.
* Protecting Canada’s cultural identity during trade negotiations.
* Restoring the government provided transport service (eliminated by the Harper government) to allow the transport of exhibitions between museums and galleries;
* Protecting the copyright for artists such that they are not surrendered to museums and galleries in the process of permitting exhibits.
Economic/Tax Policy:
* They support “Income-splitting” to reduce the tax burden on middle class couples, allowing for more parents (who would like to) to be able to stay home with and raise their children themselves rather than working just to pay someone else to raise their child. The current tax regime is discriminatory and forces many parents to have to try and find alternative child care outside the home so that they can both work to support the family. If more children could be raised by a full-time stay-at-home mother or father our society would be dramatically improved for the better. They also support universal access to excellent childcare and early childhood education.
* They call for the elimination of income tax for those earning $20,000 or less
* They would provide increased tax breaks for Canadians who donate to charitable societies.
* As originators of the Green Shift idea they would: Lower taxes on desirable/beneficial things like income, payroll, savings, investment and spend more money on good things like public transportation and infrastructure, education, healthcare and research. Raise taxes on harmful/undesirable things like pollution, toxic chemicals, inefficient/wasteful/environmentally damaging industrial processes, weapons manufacture, etc.
* Return the GST to six per cent, to invest in infrastructure. Expand the exemptions on food items, and extend them to children’s clothing and books and Arts and Culture products. Provide rebates for rural Canadians.
* They support moving to "true" or "full-cost” accounting, whereby products and services are priced according to the positive or negative impacts they cause throughout their lifecycle.
* They support the implementation of the Genuine Progress Indicator (or Index of Well-being) rather than just Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator of the countries well-being.
* They advocate would establish a minimum of three weeks paid vacation and a managed reduction in the standard work week to 35 hours, to promote public health and well-being and increase productivity.
* The Green Party believes in living within our limits, ecological and fiscally. They are committed to a balanced budget and to reducing the national debt and would set a disciplined schedule to gradually pay down the debt while meeting immediate social and environmental needs, increasing debt reduction over time but starting with modest targets to permit investment in critical programs.
Environmental Measures:
* They support only bio-fuels that actually save carbon emissions and don’t distort food supplies or prices. That means no corn- or grain-based ethanol.
* They call for an end to asbestos mining and export to developing countries.
* They call for a moratorium on new projects in the tar sands as recommended by no less than past Alberta premier Peter Lougheed, the City of Ft. McMurray and energy industry leaders.
* The phase out of nuclear power and uranium mining. (no more depleted uranium munitions)
* Phase in regulations mandating that a (steadily increasing) proportion of disposable cutlery and dishes used in fast food establishments be sourced from recycled and/or biodegradable sources.
International Relations:
* They support a continuing role in Afghanistan but within a transformed U.N. mission, legalizing and regulating the poppy trade for medicinal use, and bringing in more Islamic nations into the peace-keeping, security efforts in Southern Afghanistan through the U.N. to lessen the perception of a Western/Christian crusade.
* Meet the United Nations’ target that 0.7 per cent of Canada’s GDP go to Overseas Development Assistance.
* The six month notice to get out of NAFTA with immediate re-negotiation of key provisions to place more emphasis on fair trade.
* The reform of the Divorce Act to make family law less of a battleground.
* The legalization of marijuana, to be controlled, regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco. Raise taxes on these regulated substances to discourage their use.
* Scrap the Security and Prosperity Partnership (ie. Canada becoming the next Peurto Rico)
Democratic Reform and other good ideas:
* Support for open source software and net neutrality.
* Rejection of draconian copyright regulations that restrict fair use and benefit only large media companies rather than artists/content creators.
* Parliamentary and electoral reform (ex. proportional representation, preferential voting, MP recall). Borrow practical reforms from other healthy democracies.
* Fixed election dates.
* Strengthening government accountability and transparency.
Agriculture/Food & Water Safety:
* National shift to GE-free, organic agriculture and regional food self-sufficiency.
* Support the family farm. Provide GST rebates and compensation for protecting ecological services, such as wildlife habitat.
* Encourage production and consumption of Canadian agricultural products, especially organically grown.
* Protect drinking water at its source. Pass federal legislation to prohibit bulk water exports.
* Amend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enshrine the right of Canadians to an ecological heritage that includes breathable air and drinkable water.
* Establish a National Parks completion budget; protect at least half of Canada's Boreal Forest in a network of large interconnected protected areas as called for in the 2003 Boreal Forest Conservation Framework
* Zero waste, including laws requiring lifetime stewardship of products
* A cancer prevention strategy that includes a toxic-free Canada -- taxing toxics and pollution; ending the production and use of the most dangerous toxic chemicals by 2012.
For the nitty gritty of the Green Party platform go here
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